A variety of medical procedures require the patient to be restricted in movement. For example, a particular need exists for immobilizing a patient when performing a procedure which requires exact placement and insertion of an invasive needle or probe into the patient's body. This is especially important in medical procedures where the placement of the probe or needle involves the risk of serious injury or damage from an inadvertent motion by the patient. Notable among such procedures are spinal tap or lumbar puncture procedures, involving the insertion of a needle into the spinal canal through the spaces between lumbar vertebrae where any motion of the patient while the needle is being inserted into the body runs a serious risk of spinal damage. Lumbar puncture procedures, which are required for obtaining spinal fluid samples for diagnostic procedures, present a risk of damage to the patient's spinal cord if any movement of the patient occurs during the procedure. Since spinal taps are very uncomfortable, the risk of such motion is particularly severe in children. Moreover, such procedures are done without anesthesia, which compounds the problem of unwanted movement in children. This movement increases the possibility of the puncture instrument contacting the spinal nerves of the patient, thereby causing an involuntary reflex response.
As a result, it is necessary to restrain the patient from moving during the medical procedure. Securing the patient against movement requires that the apparatus positively secure the child against both in response to pain and to involuntary muscle reflex responses. However such restraints cannot be of the type that so bind the child that a panic response ensues, or that unduly heightens the fears of the child.
Various immobilizers have been developed for holding patients, including small children, in a proper position for an operation, such as a spinal tap. One example of such an immobilizer is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,337,982, in which a pediatric lumbar puncture immobilizer is described having a series of supports mounted thereto to restrain the patient positioned thereon. While the pediatric lumbar puncture immobilizer effectively works to securely restrain the patient in a non-threatening manner, this design does not teach a means for providing a sterile field for the lumbar puncture or "spinal tap" to be performed.
Accordingly, what is needed and is not taught by the prior art is an immobilizing apparatus that provides a sterile field for a physician to perform a medical procedure while restraining the patient from undesired movement that could injure the patient.